Customary Chaos
by LilKnux0728
Summary: 4 Parter. PART 1 FINISHED : Chaos and the Metals return, and wreak havoc once again. This time, the gang won't be able to stop them without a few major sacrifices...


Customary Chaos

Part 1 – The Returnings 

Prologue 

Sonic smiled as he stood on the edge of the point, calmly watching the sunrise.  It had been 5-months since they had saved the world that day on space colony ARK, and all was at peace.  He looked towards Floating Island and traced its outline in the rising sun.  The Chaos Emeralds were back with Knuckles.  A smile came to Sonic's face.  Rouge had made a home at Floating Island and stayed with Knuckles.  All and all, it was probably good for Knuckles to have some company.  Compulsively, Sonic flipped his wrist out and stared at one particular bracelet.  Shadow's bracelet.  

"Rest in Peace Shadow," Sonic whispered, his voice trailing across the water.  Sonic bowed his head and walked away.  At the last minute, he turned around to the sunrise, smiled and ran away.  As Sonic slowed down, he stopped at the burger shop to get a bite to eat.  Then maybe he'd go and visit Tails and Amy.  As he sat down, his cell phone rang.  Tails had given one to he and Amy.  They each had a cover on it.  Sonic stared down at his face on the cover, and then pressed the talk button.

"Hello?" a voice said.

"Hey Tails!  What's up?"

            "Hi Sonic!" Tails voice rang through the cell phone, "Where abouts are you?"

            "I stopped for a bite to eat in Station Square."

            "Great!  I was wondering if you wanted to come to Twinkle Park with us."

            "Sure," Sonic asked, and then paused.  "We?"

            "Yeah, I called Amy, she said she'd be there."

            "Okay.  I have to go now, Tails.  Burger's here."  Sonic pressed the end call button.  He smiled and then picked up his burger. 

It was just like each of the three had imagined their world, calm and peaceful.  But for how long?

Chapter 1 

            Sonic tapped his foot impatiently as he waited at the Twinkle Park entrance for Tails and Amy.

            "SONIE!"  Sonic looked up to see Amy running straight for him and Tails flying behind her.  He rolled his eyes as Amy hugged him.  

            "Uh…Amy?" Sonic said, after Amy didn't let go, "We should get go in now." 

            "Oh all right," a flustered Amy replied.  

            After being dragged on every single ride in the park, Amy exited Twinkle Park, slightly sick.  She was lost in her own thoughts, paying no attention to Sonic and Tails.  Without warning, Sonic grabbed her wrist and took off down the street, followed by Tails.  

            Finally, Sonic stopped in front of the ice cream shop. 

            "Sonic!" Amy said through clenched teeth.

            "What?  Amy, the ice cream shop closes in five minutes!  We had to get here in time, and frankly, if we went at your speed, we'd be lucky if we got here within the hour."  Amy saw red.  Sonic walked into the shop and Tails sat down on the bench, watching the news on a T.V in a shop front.  Amy huffed and sat by Tails, until her attention caught the news.  

            "Today there were many reports of an unidentified flying object in the Mystic Ruins," the newscaster said.  They stared at the photo of the "U.F.O" which sprung memories, and was where someone they knew was housed.  That person was…

            "EGGMAN!" Tails, Amy, and Sonic, who had just come out of the shop, ice creams in hand.  

            Eggman stared out of one of the windows in his new improved Egg Carrier.  He was smiling as his gaze fell on Tails' workshop.  Stumbling as the Egg Carrier drew to a stop and landed, Eggman frowned and took out a walkie-talkie.  

            "What's the position of Tails and any other inhabitants?" he asked sharply into it.  

            "The lights are off, the infrared sensors only pick up a small amount of heat from an object, most likely a computer," a voice broke through the static.  

            "Well then," Eggman sighed, "Lift her up, we're going to Angel Island," then added as an afterthought, "Destroy the workshop."

            "Yes sir!"  The walkie returned to silence.  

            "Well, project Shadow was a total waste," the smile returned to his face, "But this plan won't be, oh no it won't."  He cackled insanely.  "This time, Sonic, you won't be the hero."   

               Knuckles sighed as he sat on the shrine's steps, waiting for Rouge.  She had left about a half an hour before, going to the east side of the island.  However, he was not greeted by light footsteps, but by loud heavy ones.  Immediately, Knuckles lifted his head of his hands at the familiar noise.  

            "Eggbots," he whispered, running down the shrine steps to be met with about 50 of the torturous robots.  Rouge was being held in the middle, flailing her legs to try and kick one of them.  

            "KNUCKLES!" she cried.  He ran forward, but the eggbot in front pulled out a gun.  Knuckles squinted to read what type it was.  E-100 series.  This brought up some memories that Knuckles would have rather left in the mud.  

            "Stop," it commanded.  The voice was so close to Gamma's it was almost a mimic.  "Hand over the Chaotic Emeralds."

            No way, Knuckles thought savagely, as long as I'm breathing, no one will touch my emeralds.  "There are two ways to solve this problem," he glanced at the number again.  "E-109.  You can surrender now, or die."

            "I think the situation is vice versa."  Knuckles lunged at E-109 and kneed it in the middle section, bringing it down to check the damage.  He used his claws as blades, cutting open the armor in the back of the neck, and then grabbing a fistful of wires and pulling.  After E-109 fell into the green grass, Knuckles moved on to the easier eggbots and handling them with ease.  The few that were left retreated back about 20 feet.  Unless the sight was messing up his vision, the eggbots met with a blue metallic figure, which boosted to the front.  Unless he was hallucinating, that robot was Metal Sonic.  Knuckles flexed his fingers, staring at the heartless cold red eyes, which on contact flashed white.  

            "Bring it on," he whispered.  

Chapter 2 

            Sonic, Amy, and Tails ran from the train station to Tails' workshop in a matter of seconds.  Tails fell to his knees when, instead of seeing his workshop, he saw a pile of ashes.  

            "Eggman," Sonic hissed.  

            "Sonic, Amy," Tails said, "I've got an underground tunnel that leads to another workshop in the mountain.  We can go to Angel Island from there.  We have to make sure the Emeralds are there."  

            "What?" Sonic was dumbfounded at the mention of another workshop, but followed Tails to it.  

            Knuckles stared calmly at Metal Sonic as he boosted over.  

            "Rouge, go and take care of the eggbots," he said, his sight never straying from Metal Sonic. 

            "Knuckles!  Are you insane?  Sonic almost lost to this…this…thing!  Tails' said that he's even a bit afraid of it!"  

            "Go."  Rouge stared at him for a few seconds, and then ran over to the eggbots.  

            "You won't hand over the emeralds," Metal Sonic stated.  

            "What does it seem like tin can?"  Knuckles said as his digging claws slid over his fists and he adopted a fighting stance.  Metal Sonic looked down at him.  

            "It's shame that Tikal won't be able to watch you fail," Metal Sonic commented.  Knuckles charged at him.  As Knuckles reached him, Metal raised his hand and chopped it across Knuckles' face, having somewhat of the same affect that digging claws had.  Knuckles jumped up and ran at Metal Sonic, but ducked and slid through his legs, and then dug his claws into the back of his neck.  Metal simply flipped him over his shoulder and kneed him.  When he fell to the ground, Metal simply assaulted Knuckles with punches.  Metal backed off a bit.  His hand slowly formed a missile launcher.  

            "Nice toy," Knuckles hissed.  Metal shot at Knuckles, who dodged the first five or six, but the seventh slammed into his shoulder, knocking off his balance, making him victim for the eighth shot, which hit his stomach, and the ninth shot, which hit him on his hip.  

            Metal watched the echidna on the ground wither with pain, the missiles slowly burning through his flesh.  

            "Stupid Guardian," he muttered, but paused when a warning flashed, singling a form headed toward him.  Metal turned around and caught Rouge's fist and threw her backward.  Her back hit a column with a resounding thud.  When Metal turned around, Knuckles was on all fours, staring up at him angrily.  Metal simply loaded his gun again but a crashing noise distracted him.  He turned around to watch a blue and orange plane crash into the forest about 100 yards back.  

            Seeing that Metal was distracted, Knuckles leapt on him, damaging the gun and his armor, leaving Metal temporarily down for the count.  Knuckles ran up the shrine steps as Metal tried to shot at him, but the rockets missed, hitting the shrine steps and causing it to shake violently.  Once Metal recovered himself, he boosted up the steps.  

            Metal stared at Knuckles, who was standing in front of the Master Emerald in a fighting stance.  Stupid inferior animals, Metal thought.  He aimed at Knuckles forehead and fired, but Knuckles ducked and instead the shot shattered the Master Emerald.  Metal growled and grabbed Knuckles and threw him off the side of the shrine.

            "Stop right there!"  Metal whirled his head around to face his nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog.  He picked up a few shards of the Master Emerald as the remaining eggbot gathered the chaos emeralds.  Tails ran up and collected two of the Chaos Emeralds before the eggbot could.  The eggbot ran off with the other 5 emeralds.  

            "I'll be seeing you soon, Sonic.  Very soon," Metal said, and boosted off to the Egg Carrier. 

            Tails sighed heavily as he lowered himself to the ground.  Amy was checking to see if Knuckles and Rouge were okay.  Sonic started looking around for pieces of the Master Emerald as he tried to figure out how Metal could have survived.

            "Knuckles is unconscious," Amy said after awhile.  "I'm willing to bet the same for Rouge."

            "I hope you're not a good gambler, Amy," Sonic muttered under his breath.  

Eggman beamed as Metal Sonic entered the room, then noticed his dented armor.  

            "What's this?" he demanded.

            "The guardian's being," Metal replied.  "The Master Emerald is shattered again and we only managed to get 5 of the 7 emeralds."  Eggman gritted his teeth.  

            "Did you get some of the Master's shards?"  Metal nodded and Eggman sighed with relief.  

            "Metal, you go and find some more of the Master Emerald shards."

            "All of the group is there, boss."

            "BAH!  I don't care how many there are!  Now go!"  Eggman stared after Metal, grinning evilly as he exited the room to go to the control room.  

            Two sets of green eyes glowed in the darkness as he left.  

Chapter 3

            Sonic sighed as he dragged Knuckles to the Tornado 3.  Good thing this thing has 4 seats, he thought.  Tails leapt into the pilot seat and started the plane.  Amy placed Rouge in a seat behind him, and Sonic did the same for Knuckles, and resumed his position on the plane wing.  Tails flipped open a compartment for the Chaos Emeralds, but had second thoughts.  Instead, he put one in and tossed the other to Sonic.  

            "Keep it safe!" he hollered.  Sonic had found 8 shards of the Master Emerald.  He had 1 of them, Tails had 3, Amy had 2 of them and Knuckles had 3 of them.  They figured it'd be harder for Eggman to gather all of them.   The plane started to rumble with power.  

            "Ugh…" Knuckles moaned.

            "KNUCKLES!" Amy shouted.

            "Chao…" he whispered.

            "What about the chao?" Amy asked as the plane rose into the sky.

            "Go to Chao garden," he responded weakly.  Tails looked back, and Sonic eventually nodded.  

            "Chao Garden, here we come," Tails muttered under his breath, making a U-turn to head toward the island's garden.   

            Eggman frowned as Metal started to boost off.  

            "WAIT!" he shouted, and Metal Sonic came to a screeching halt.

            "Yes?"

            "Forget the Master Emerald, go to Angel Island and proceed with Plan B." 

            "New Mission Operative:  Kill or knock out the Chao." 

            Metal arrived in the Chao garden about 10 minutes before Sonic, Amy, Tails, Rouge, and Knuckles.  

            "SONIC!" a pink hero chao ran up to Metal Sonic and hugged his leg, then drew back.  "Waits a minutes, yous aren'ts Sonic!"

            So, Metal thought, the fools taught the chao how to speak.  He lashed his leg out at the chao, ramming it into the mountain.  Metal stood for a moment, listening to the chao cry out, and then attacked the rest of the chao until he came upon one unlike the others.  It was a dark chao with small quills.  It had a gray patch of fur on its stomach.  Metal thought for a moment, and a warning popped up on his screen, saying that there was a plane headed this way.  

            "You evil," the chao said, frowning.  "Why do you not have warm heart?"

            "I'm a robot, you inferior little mammal, I work for Eggman." Metal responded.  

            "But Shadow did follows botnik, and he had warm heart so say Sonic.  Shadow, Metal thought, Eggman's previous plan.   In disgust, he kicked the chao hard, sending it flying next to the others.  And with that, Metal boosted away.

            "Oh my god," Amy whispered as they reached Chao Garden.  She ran over to the pink hero chao that resembled Amy somewhat.  

            Sonic ran up to the other chao that were all piled near each other.  

            "YOU!" Knuckles gold chao spit in horror when he saw Sonic.  "GO WAYS!"  Knuckles turned and stared at Sonic, and they had an understanding of what happened immediately.  

            "It wasn't Sonic," Knuckles said gently, scooping the chao into his arms, "It was a robot that looks like him."

            "Uh…guys?" Rouge said, pointing to where a small pool of water had been, but now it was just soggy soil.  

            "We're too late," Knuckles murmured.  

            "What are you guys talking about?" Sonic asked, looking from Rouge and back to Knuckles.  

            "He has awakened," he replied, in shocked voice.  Then Sonic, Tails and Amy realized what Knuckles and Rouge were talking about.  

            "Chaos," all of them said in a monotone voice.

Chapter 4

            "We have to get Eggman," Sonic said.

            "What do you mean?" Knuckles demanded.  "We have to get Chaos first!"

            "No!  We're going to get Eggman!"

            "Who put you in charge, Mr. Showoff?" 

            "Cut it out!" Amy shouted.  Sonic and Knuckles subsided, but they were still glaring daggers at each other.  "Why do you want to go to Eggman first, Sonikku?"

            Sonic sighed, "Isn't it obvious?"  Tails nodded, Knuckles still glared at him, and Amy looked clueless.  "Eggman rebuilt Metal Sonic to do this and now Chaos is going to destroy the city and Eggman is going to do something - "

            "Which is why we should get Chaos first!" Knuckles cut him off.

            "But he's not even Perfect Chaos!"

            "NOT YET!" a voice boomed.  Tails turned around wildly trying to find who said that when he recognized the voice.

            "EGGMAN!" the five said at the same time.  

            "HA, HA, HA!" he responded, "PERFECT CHAOS SHALL RISE AGAIN!"          

            "Get real, Robuttnik!" Sonic shouted. "Chaos won't listen to you!"

            "SHUT UP YOU HUNK OF JUNK!"

            "Go to heck, Eggman!" Rouge shouted.

            "YOU CAN SHUT UP TOO BAT GIRL!"

            "Why does everyone call me that?" Rouge demanded.

            "SHUT UP!" everyone said. 

            "Now, Sonic, do you remember Metal Sonic?"  

            "How could I forget?" Sonic mumbled.

            "Well, do you remember Metal's friends?  I actually rebuilt the first two, then decided to have the other one, too."  

            Sonic heard a machine whirred and turned around to face his nemesis, Metal Sonic.  Behind him there was a gold/orange machine holding Tails; Metal Tails, Metal Knuckles was holding Rouge, and Metal Amy holding Amy Rose.  When Sonic looked back at Metal, he was holding Knuckles, and like the others, with a gun to his hostage's head.  

            "Hello Sonic," Metal said.

            Amy struggled with the pink metallic hand that was wrapped around her neck.

            "Sonie!" she cried, "Go and stop Chaos!  Don't worry about me!"

            "Has it ever struck you," Knuckles said from Metal's grasp, "That he isn't worried?   Well, at least about you, Amy Rose?"

            Amy frowned.  What if Knuckles was right?  That would mean Sonic only thought of her as an annoying little girl, always tagging along and-  "NO!" she shouted, shaking her head to stop her thoughts.  Robotnik's laughter echoed in the garden. 

            "Eggman," Sonic eventually said, "You can have me but release all of my friends."

            "NO!" Tails shouted, "You gotta stop Chaos!"

            "It's too late for that!" Eggman shouted, "Perfect Chaos will arise soon, and I'm releasing you all to see it.  Metals, take them to Station Square."   

            "But you don't have all 7 emeralds!" Tails shouted.     

            "Yes we do," Eggman said.  "Metal stole the emeralds."  He glanced at Knuckles and a grin spread across his face.  "You know, we just might reconsider letting all of them go."

            "I'd rather die than work for you," Knuckles spat, knowing what Eggman would've said.  

            "Okay.  Metal?"

            "Move it," he said shoving all of them to the Egg Carrier.  20 minutes later, they arrived in Station Square, on top of a skyscraper.  The metals shoved their hostages to the edge so they were forced to watch.  

            "Try it and all of them die," Eggman said, seeing Sonic tense up.  Eggman motioned with his hand and he and Sonic walked up to the edge also.  "And the show begins," he said as the ground began to split in the rebuilt Station Square.  

            "Oh god," Amy whispered as she was the water tower in, as if in a flashback of last time.    

            "Chaos!" Knuckles shouted, seeing the water monster lurking about 5 buildings away from them.  As if on cue, the windows in their building shattered.  Chaos turned its liquid head and stared at them with the emerald green eyes.  An energy beam from him slammed into the building.  The backlash from it sent Eggman flying.  After the smoke cleared, Eggman was hanging onto the building's edge.  

            "Sonic, please help me!" Ivo said, reaching out his hand.  Sonic looked at him as if he was crazy.  "Fine, be that way!"

            "What the heck, Eggman!  You've been trying to kill me for like, forever and now you want me to save your life?"

            "Well, you should help," Eggman shrugged.  "Metal Sonic?"  The robot nodded its head and lifted his gun to Knuckles' head again.  Sonic glared at Metal.

            "So what's it going to be Sonic?  Save me, or don't and have your…friend die?"  

            The building gave a tremendous shake and Eggman was flung back on the roof, stopped from flying off the other side by Metal Sonic who let go of Knuckles.  A monstrous roar came from behind them, and they turned to see Perfect Chaos.  Eggman smiled as he climbed up a ladder to the Egg Carrier.  

            "It's a real shame I have to lose all of these great robots to make sure you die, Sonic."

            "Whatever Eggman!" Sonic shouted, jumping for the ladder, but missing as the Egg Carrier took off.  Chaos lifted its mighty head above the heroes and roared once more.  

Chapter 5

            "Get out of here!" Sonic shouted at the others.  

            "Sonie!" Amy cried.  "You can't fight Chaos by yourself!"

            Sonic stared up at Perfect Chaos.  "I've done it before, and I can do it again."

            "You were Super Sonic then!" she protested, "We don't have the emeralds!  Sonikku, please don't!  I don't wanna lose you!"

            "Tails, Knuckles," Sonic said, looking past Amy Rose, "Take Rouge and Amy and get out of here.  Alright?"

            "Okay," Tails said in barely more than a whisper.  Knuckles simply stared at the ground.  

            "Sonic?" he said.  

            "Yea?"

            "Be careful, okay?"  Sonic raised his eyebrow, until Knuckles added; "No one else around here can almost beat me at anything.  Tails, go take Amy to a safe place.  Rouge and I will look for the emeralds," Knuckles turned back to Sonic.  "We'll be back soon as we can."  Sonic nodded as Knuckles and Tails began to fight with their Metal counterparts.  

            Amy, still in Metal Amy's grip saw it before the others.  Those eyes had given her a feeling before like the beast was planning something…and now she knew that he had been.  Sonic and the rest were so involved with the Metals, they didn't notice Perfect Chaos raise his head and start to slam it down, into the building's edge.  

            "WATCH OUT!" she shouted as the shadow fell on top of her, and Chaos' head coming for her and the others.  

            "AMY!" Sonic shouted, and dived at her, pushing her out of harm's way.  Sonic quickly got up and headed to safety as Perfect Chaos' head smashed into the spot right where he had been.  When the smoke cleared, Sonic was struggling to get up.  

            "SONIKKU!" Amy shouted, running to him.  Knuckles was already halfway there.  

            Sonic clawed at the concrete, but it crumbled under his gloves and he slid even more down the edge.  Finally, he got a good grip under both paws, and heaved himself up, but as he did, the rock shifted and Sonic tumbled down to his watery doom.  

            "NO!" Amy shouted, falling to her knees beside Knuckles, watching helplessly.  

            For a moment, the water turned into the earth, Sonic's fur darkened to black and his quills went to a dark red.  When Amy opened her eyes again, reality was back.  She listened as Sonic slammed into the water, disappearing under the liquid surface.  When he didn't surface, Amy felt her heart tear in two.

            "No…" she sobbed, "Sonikku…Shadow…"

            "Amy!" Knuckles shouted at her as she was nearly hit by Metal Amy, the only robot besides Metal Sonic and Knuckles to live.  Knuckles ran and aided Tails and Rouge in destroying the Metals.  

            A tear rolled down Amy's cheek, glistening in the light.  

            "Sonic…" she whispered as, unknown to her, a light surrounded her and then the Chaos Emeralds appeared, circling around her.  Amy gasped when she saw them.  

            "Chaos and Eggman are going to pay," she hissed as the Chaos Emeralds got faster and faster.

            Metal Sonic, having put both Knuckles and Tails out of commission and Rouge in the hands of Metal Tails and Knuckles, headed towards Amy.  When the light subsided, Hyper Amy was standing in front of him.  She was a silver color and her eyes were the same crimson color of Super Sonic's.  Without warning, she swung her hammer at Metal Sonic, completely decapitating him.  Hyper Amy smiled and rammed her hammer into each of the other robots.  

            "Ugh…" Knuckles said, slowly standing up.  "Remind me not to get Amy mad again," he added to Tails, seeing the 'bots heads scattered across the roof.  He then ran up to the Chaos Emeralds and briefly smiled, then another bright flash later; Super Tails, Hyper Rouge and Hyper Knuckles were standing next to Hyper Amy.  

            "CHAOS!" Amy called and the water monster loomed above them.  "Where is Sonic?"

            The monster leaned its head back and roared again, a slight smile at the corners of its mouth.  

            "Let's see how pleased you are when you get sealed back in the Master Emerald, Chaos!" Knuckles shouted, the Master Emerald appearing in his hand.  Chaos lunged at Knuckles, but he dodged and repeated the chant.

            "The servers are the seven chaos, chaos is power enriched by the heart.  The controller is the one that unifies the chaos.  Only you can do this, stop the Chaos Emeralds!"  A bright light emerged from the Master Emerald and headed straight to Perfect Chaos. Hyper Amy, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails jumped off of the building, ramming into Chaos and causing some damage before the light hit him.  All of them were blasted back by the explosion. 

            Hyper Knuckles sighed with relief and looked down at the ground, expecting to see cracked streets, horrible wreckage, and a blue dot.  He gasped when he still saw the blue water, and then looked up to see Perfect Chaos' head leaning towards him. 

            "What?" Hyper Knuckles whispered. 

Chapter 6  

            Slowly, the creature opened one green eye, the water only stinging it slightly.  

            "Where am I?" the creature croaked, but only a stream of bubbles issued from its mouth, heading to the surface.  After checking its alternatives, the blue hedgehog decided that swimming to the surface would take to much time, and, after all, he was breathing this water, wasn't he?  Instead, the hero had seen a small whole in the road, probably where a sewer was, but he did not remember a sewer top there.  As Sonic the hedgehog slowly progressed along the tunnel, he floated to the top, where there was about a couple feet of air there.  Unknown to him, a small green object slid out of his shoe.    

            "Odd," he thought.  "Wouldn't the water have covered it all?"  After swimming for a while, he found himself at a dead end, until he noticed a small doorway at the bottom.  First, Sonic decided to check to see if he still had the ability to breathe underwater.  After a gallon of water down his throat, Sonic decided that the ability had worn off or something of the sort.  He took a deep breath and swum to the door and entered it, immediately swimming to the top of the place.  After a few breaths, Sonic got out of the water.  There was a small…hallway that led south of him, and he took it.  Sonic was aware of clanging and thudding noises around him, but discarded them after he looked around and determined that it was something else.  As he turned around, a figure leapt down from the top of the grassy hallway and clobbered him with a hard object, knocking him out.  Before he was hit, Sonic gasped, shocked and surprised at the presence of the other creature.     

            Hyper Knuckles jumped off the edge of the building and flew over to Super Tails.  

            "How do we beat him?" Amy asked from a ways off.  

            "I have no clue!"

            "How'd we get the Master Emerald?" Super Tails asked.  "Wasn't it in shards?"  

            Hyper Knuckles sighed irritably.  "Yes.  I got the shards from Metal Sonic while we were fighting and I picked up the ones that you guys scattered across the roof."  

            "Huh?" 

            Hyper Knuckles grabbed Super Tails and flew off as a laser from Perfect Chaos destroyed the building behind them.  

            "What do we do?" Hyper Amy asked frantically.

            "WAIT!" Super Tails shouted.  "Didn't Sonic have a shard of the Master?"  

            "That's why it didn't work," Hyper Knuckles whispered, in shock as he pulled out the Master Emerald.  Indeed, there was a piece missing.  

            "Where's Sonic?" Hyper Amy asked again, looking down at the water.  

            "Where do you think, idiot?" Hyper Knuckles hissed at her, finally cracking.  "He's probably dead by now!"  Hyper Amy blankly stared at him.  "I say we get Chaos by force."

            "It'll never work," Super Tails muttered.  

            "And what do you suggest we do, kid?  Go back home and lull it over while thousands of people are drowning by the second?"  Hyper Knuckles shook his head disdainfully and flew to Perfect Chaos, hovering in front of his face. 

            "What are you doing?" Hyper Rouge shouted.  After dodging a couple of attacks, Hyper Knuckles regained his composure and smirked at the creature.  

            "You want me, Chaos?  Then come and get me," he said, flying off to the ocean, followed by Perfect Chaos, firing off lasers at random.  

            Sonic moaned as he slowly opened his eyes.  The light stung them and his eyesight was blurry from the water.

            "Sonic?" a deep voice said, the dark figure looming over him.  Sonic closed his eyes again and opened them again, his vision clearing.  

            "Shadow?" he shouted disbelievingly.  The black hedgehog smirked a little.

            "You haven't forgotten me yet?" Shadow asked, raising his eyebrow.  

            "Aren't you dead?"  

            "No," Shadow said slowly.  "I used Chaos Control to get from space to about 100 meters above ground.  I ended up here."  He motioned around the small room, and then returned his gaze to the small mattress.  "I was unconscious for a long time, maybe 3 months."

            "But-"

            "Wait," Shadow said, cutting Sonic off.  "What is all of the water here for?"  

            "Perfect Chaos," Sonic said, suddenly alert and awake.  

            "Who?"  

Chapter 7

            Hyper Rouge floated just above a building ledge, next to Hyper Amy.  

            "What are we supposed to do?" she asked.  

            "I have no clue," Hyper Amy replied.  Hyper Rouge bit her lip, staring after Knuckles.  Finally she boosted off after Perfect Chaos.  

            "Rouge!  Come back here!" Hyper Amy shouted and groaned in frustration.  "Tails, what do we do?"

            Super Tails stared at her blankly.  "I have no clue."

            "Listen, Shadow, we HAVE to go back up there!" Sonic shouted.  

            "Why?  You're not fully healed."

            "It's Perfect Chaos out there!"  

            "I do not understand."  

            "A big water monster destroying the city, OKAY?" Sonic screamed.  

            "Why didn't you just say so?  Let's go!"

            Knuckles panted as he dodged the god of destructions watery hands.  He boosted forward, feeling his energy drain.  Finally, he flew over the ocean.  Seeing Angel Island's skyline in the distance, he knew what he should do.  Stopping as fast as he could, he whirled and faced Chaos.  Knuckles saw a silver blur flying toward him.  He ignored it and instead stared into the crystal green eyes of Chaos.  

            "Sorry Rouge," he whispered as Chaos lunged toward him.  

            Tails hovered over the building, wondering what he should do.  As of the moment, he was watching Knuckles.  All of a sudden he stopped.  

            "What?" Tails whispered in shock.  

Perfect Chaos flung his watery arms at Knuckles, drowning him in his cold, chilly wrath.

            "NO!" Rouge shouted as she saw Knuckles fall.  Perfect Chaos turned toward her.  She knew it wasn't possible, but she thought she saw a small smile at the edges of the beast lips.  Rouge let the fury and rage build up.  Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles, she thought.  

            Chaos stared at the silver creature staring daggers at him.  It rose up and prepared to fall down on her like a tidal wave when a burst of purple energy erupted from her, slamming into his forehead.  Roaring in pain, Chaos drew back, staring at the creature in wonder.  All of a sudden, a metallic blue blur swept his prey from him.  

            Amy jumped in shock as Chaos roared again.

            "Was that Metal Sonic?" Tails whispered, glowing amber in his super form.  

            "It can't have been unless…" Amy trailed off, turning around and staring in shock.  

Metal Amy, Metal Tails, and Metal Knuckles were standing behind them; reassembled and powered up.  

            Shadow and Sonic whirled into the depths of the water covering Shadow's temporary home.  

            Shadow looked down at the water most of the way, being the one who could hold his breath the longest.  He had doubts about Sonic's 'ability' to breathe underwater.  He would've grinned underwater, but decided against it as he picked up a small green piece of the Master Emerald.  He tapped Sonic on the shoulder and they rose up for air.  

            "Ready?" Sonic asked.  Shadow nodded as they both took deep breaths and swam from Shadow's hideout, which turned out to be in what looked like a sewer (but wasn't). 

            Rouge turned around sharply to face Metal Sonic.  

            "Aren't you dead?" she said, in shock for a moment, then dived out of the way of another attack by Chaos.  

            Super Tails and Amy backed away from the robots.

            "They're invincible!" Amy said, afraid.  Tails groaned but then smiled.

            "They're electric," he muttered.

            "And what good – " Amy started, then realization passed through her and she grinned, pulling out her mallet.  Metal Amy pulled out hers and swung toward Amy, who had swung towards her.  When the hammers connected, Amy dropped hers, swept Metal Amy's legs from underneath her and shoved her into the water.  The pink body splashed into the water, followed by several large sparks, that looked like lightening.  Chaos roared in pain. 

            "2 birds with one stone," Tails commented, then attacked Metal Knuckles.

Chapter 8

            Shadow and Sonic gasped for breath as they reached the surface.  

            "C'mon!" Sonic said, and swam into a building, and then up its stairs, which weren't covered with water…yet.  Shadow quickly followed him to the rooftop, vaguely aware of the stairs creaking under them.  

            Rouge frowned as she heard something-or someone-coming through to the rooftop she and Metal Sonic were on.  Metal Sonic shoved Rouge to the edge of the roof and prepared for whatever was coming up.  

            Rouge gasped as two familiar hedgehogs burst through the door.  Metal stared at its rival in shock.  

            "SHADOW!  SONIC!" Hyper Rouge screamed, hugging each of them.  

            "Where's Knuckles, Ames and Tails?" Sonic asked.  

            Rouge pointed to the building that they were at.

            "Where's Knuckles?" Sonic asked, seeing Hyper Amy and Super Tails.  Rouge immediately dropped her gaze to the ground.  

            "Rouge?" Shadow said.  She jerked and leapt off.  

            "Take care of Chaos, I'll get the Metals with those two," she shouted at them.  

            "But – " Sonic started, but Rouge had already joined the other two.  

            Amy screamed as she was thrown over the edge, but a white paw grabbed her.

            "Rouge!" Amy said, relieved.  

            "C'mon," Rouge muttered, pulling Amy onto the roof again.  "You go help Sonic and Shadow, I'll take care of these freaks."

            "SONIC AND SHADOW ARE ALIVE?" Amy shouted.  

            "Um…yea.  Go and help them w/Chaos."

            "Ch-Chaos…" Amy whispered.

            "You're always complaining about we don't give you the important jobs," Rouge said.

            "Alright," Hyper Amy replied, and leapt off of the building.  Rouge stared after her for a brief moment, then closed her eyes and whirled to face Metal Knuckles, who had been creeping up on her. 

            In a purple flash of energy, Metal Knuckles was sizzling in the water with Perfect Chaos roaring in protest.

            "Woah…" Tails said slowly.  

            "C'mon!" Rouge shouted.  

            "Uh…hate to ask…but where's Metal Sonic?"  

            "Crap!" Rouge exclaimed, looking around for him.

            "Oh, well, we don't have time!" Tails said quickly.  "We have to stop Chaos!"

            "How?" Rouge said, beginning to think that there was no way out of this mess.  

            Sonic and Shadow had by now transformed into Hyper Shadow and Super Sonic.  

            "Guys!" Super Sonic yelled at the others, "We need the rest of the Master Emerald!!"

            "There's a piece missing though!  Knuckles already tried it!" Hyper Amy replied.

            "I've got the other piece!" Hyper Shadow shouted.  "The Emerald!  We need it!"

            "We have to seal him back in the Master Emerald!" Super Sonic continued.  

            Hyper Rouge flew to them with the Master Emerald.

            "Toss me the other piece!" she shouted, and Shadow did.  There was a bright flash of light, and then the Master Emerald was complete.  Rouge ran her hands over it and smiled.  "Stand back guys!"  

            The others nodded and hovered back several feet and watched as Rouge began to chant lightly.  

            "Where's Knux?" Super Sonic asked Super Tails. 

            "He's," Super Tails began, but a loud roaring noise stopped him.

            "Hurry up Rouge!" Hyper Amy shouted.  

            "Wait a minute…" Shadow whispered, and Amy, Tails, and Sonic turned to him.  "From what Sonic here told me, that Tikal echidna sealed Chaos in the Master Emerald in the first place…but…how would she be able to come back when Chaos did last time?"

            "Because she was sealed in it to!" Sonic said, but then realized what Shadow was getting at.  

            "ROUGE!" they shouted at the same time, but a green burst of light erupted from the Master Emerald and she and Chaos disappeared.  

            "No…" Amy whispered, "No…NO!!"  Tails closed his eyes and looked down at the cracked and broken city streets.  Defeated, Hyper Shadow went to get the Master Emerald.  Super Sonic tried to comfort Amy.  

            About 10 minutes later, everyone flew to the Mystic Ruins, they weren't in the mood for all of the citizens of Station Square.  When they got there, they changed back to their normal forms.  

            "Where's Knuckles?" Sonic asked again.  He saw them all kind of look at the ground, and he finally understood, feeling another pang of guilt.  After an uncomfortable silence, Shadow finally spoke.

            "Couldn't we get Rouge out of this Emerald?" he asked.

            "No," Sonic said sadly, "Not without releasing Chaos."

Epilogue

            Sonic, Amy, Tails and Shadow were at Angel Island.   

            "So I'll stay here and protect the Master Emerald," Shadow said eventually, and they nodded.  

            "At least Station Square is doing fine," Amy said, trying to point out a good thing.  

            "Yea…" Sonic said, not really paying attention.  They were all lost in their own thoughts, thinking of the day a week ago, when Chaos had almost destroyed them all.  But, in their minds, Chaos had succeeded.  

            "One day…" Tails said eventually, "Let's just get together and discuss this."

            "All right…" Amy said, "Just not soon."  Tails nodded meekly.  

            The sun finally melted into the water and the half-moon and stars shone down at them.  Tails looked sadly across the ocean, which was glittering in the moonlight.

            Up in the sky, two particular bright stars burst into red novas, and then died from the sky.

Customary Chaos 

Part 2 – Blood

Prologue

            In a normal 17year-olds heart, there are only some tragic memories.  Maybe a few family or pet deaths, but that was basically it.  But, around the area of Station Square and the Mystic Ruins, there were some 16 –and younger- year-olds, and they had more then their share of tragedies.

            One of the 17year-olds was a blue  hedgehog.  He was an orphan, and had never known his parents.  He had eventually become a hero to Station Square.  Just 1 year ago he had met up for the first time w/the god of destruction, Chaos.  That year, he had met a cast of friends.  After they defeated Chaos, one of his friends named Tikal disappeared (sealing Chaos in the Master Emerald).  7 months later, he had met up w/his rival, Eggman, once again.  This time, he found 'the ultimate life form', Shadow.  He had also met Rouge, the bat.  After a series of events, Sonic almost died, but using his quick wits, had escaped.  In a twist of events, Shadow switched sides, as in a way did Rouge.  Shadow had ended up dying…or so they had thought.  5-months after the incidents on that space colony ARK, they had met up with him again.  Metal Sonic and the other robotic copies of his friends had appeared for a second round, along with Perfect Chaos.  Once again, Sonic had almost died.  But in the end, Sonic, Shadow, Tails and Amy had survived.  Knuckles had given his life to keep Chaos away from his friends, and Rouge had given her life to seal Chaos in the Master Emerald, but sealing herself inside also.  Now, their lives had changed dramatically.  But they hadn't even been through 1/4 of the tragedies that await them.

Chapter 1

            _If a guardian of the Master Emerald dies and there is not another bloodline-worthy echidna to take his place, then the gods may send him back, for a price. _

            Sonic rubbed his eyes and yawned as he silently read the parchment.  

            _If the guardian died to protect the Master Emerald, he will return eventually.  If it were to save himself, he will never return, he will stay forever in the fiery rings in which it belongs.  _

Sonic frowned.  It made no sense.  Sighing, he went to work to translate the paragraph at the end.  

            "Tails should be the one doing this…" he muttered.

            _If someone other than the guardian is to be sealed in the Master Emerald, they will die.  The power and will to hold the power of the Master Emerald they would not have.  If for some reason, one attempts to release them, whatever was in the Emerald will be released with their_

Sonic groaned and stared at his notebook.  

            "These symbols aren't here!" he muttered to himself, and then sighed, knowing he was taking this to far. He and Shadow had been putting some minor repairs on the Shrine when Sonic had found a small chest, which had contained 10 pieces of parchment with symbols.  Sonic set the parchment back in the plastic containers that he had just bought.  He then shoved his notebook and the plastic cases w/the parchment back in his bag and walked aimlessly down Station Square's repaved sidewalks.  He stared at the burger shop, thinking of the last time he was there, 3 months ago.  Closing his eyes tightly, he willed himself to forget about that day's doings.  Everywhere he turned, something reminded him of Knuckles, Rouge, Eggman, or who-or what-ever had been in Chaos' and Metal Sonic's second return.  He ran to his apartment, jammed his key in the lock, and walked inside.  His apartment was sparkling clean, as Sonic always cleaned it everyday, because he never wanted to go outside anymore.  Sonic pressed the blue button on his answering machine and plopped on the couch as it played his messages, which he hadn't listened to in 3 days. 

            "Hi Sonic!" one voice said.  Tails, Sonic thought immediately.  "I know that we're probably never going to get to that talk," Tails' recorded voice came out blurry for the rest of this message, "But I want you to know that Knuckles died trying to get Chaos away from Amy, Rouge, and I," Sonic could hear Tails trying to stifle his sobs, "I'm…sorry…I have to go."  BEEP.

            "Hey Sonic!  This is Amy!" Sonic could tell immediately that Amy was trying to sound cheerful, "You want to come and have a burger or something with me?  Well, I guess you aren't home, so I'll talk to you later!  Take it easy, Sonie.  Bye."  BEEP.  Actually I was home, Sonic thought, sighing, I just wasn't picking up the phone.  

            "Hello Sonic," a deep voice said.  "This is Shadow.  I think Amy lied in telling me that I'd be able to hear you talking to me, but I just was going to see if you wanted to stop by and have a little chat or race or something.  Anything to…well…you know.  I must go now.  Goodbye."  BEEP.  Too late to go now, Sonic thought. 

            "Hey Sonic.  This is Tails again.  I was wondering if you wanted to come to my workshop tonight.  Amy and Shadow are coming too.  Hope to see you there."  BEEP.  

            "End of final message," the machine voice said, and then the room was quiet.

            Sonic pondered on the last message.  The message had been while he was at the library.             

            "The workshop…" he whispered, knowing that the unpleasant thoughts would be rushing into his head once he got there if he went.  Sonic sighed and mentally agreed with himself that he would go.  

            "If I didn't, I'd be stuck in this pit of memories forever," Sonic thought, and grabbed his bag.  

            Unknown to him, his memories would actually be considered happy after he got through what was being planned against him and his friends…_if_ he got through it.

Chapter 2

            In a small place unknown to the world, there was a mastermind sitting in the darkness of his barred, high-security cell.  He had been waiting…waiting in that cell for 25 years.  Only one thought, one word, sustained him = _vengeance.  _Vengeance on all of the people who had kept him in this place for 25 years, vengeance for everyone.  Having him locked up was the worst thing they could do.  His mind had finished the ultimate plan.  He would control the world and nothing could stand in his way. 

            **But some things would.**

            Sonic brightened and scribbled another symbol and meaning in his notebook.  The train started up, heading for Mystic Ruins.  

            "All right," Sonic whispered.  "Let's see what this sentence says." 

            "_If the sealed things inside the Master Emerald are released, then the Blood Gods will awaken._"  Sonic read.  "That does NOT sound good," he muttered.  He quickly shoved the parchment in his bag again and hopped off of the train as it shrieked to a stop.  

            Sonic smiled as the wind whipped around his royal blue quills as he ran to Tails' workshop.  

            "Sonic!" Tails cried, seeing the blue blur speed to his workshop.  

            "Hey Tails!" Sonic replied as he jumped and landed to stop, sending sprays of sand billowing to his left.  The two went inside.  "Hey Shadow!" Sonic exclaimed.

            "Hello," Shadow replied.  

            "Amy said she just missed the last train to Mystic Ruins so she won't be here for 15 minutes at least," Tails informed Sonic.

            "K.  Hey Shadow, where'd you put the Master?"

            "I brought it here."

They were silent for a while, & then Amy came in.

            "Guys…I have to show you something," Tails said in a serious voice.  He led them into one of his spare bedrooms.  

            "What?" Sonic said as he took in the white creature lying stilly on the wooden bed.

           Rouge the Bat was lying on the bed.  

            "Is she…alive?" Shadow asked in an uncertain tone of voice.

            "Yeah.  I mean…she's breathing," Tails said.  "She's been like that for 3 days since I found her.  Sometimes she mutters things and sometimes she starts shouting and thrashing around.  I can't feed her or make her drink something either."

            "But she was sealed in the Master Emerald!" Sonic exclaimed, and then the debates began.  Shadow sat there quietly, thinking.

            "What," Shadow began, and everyone was quiet, "If she is still sealed in the Master Emerald?"

            "That makes no sense!" Tails exclaimed.

            "Yes, actually it does," Shadow, retorted.  "It could just be her spirit or something inside the Emerald."

            "That's impossible!"

            Sonic snorted.   "Tails, think back on our adventures?  When is anything, by the books, possible?"

            "But…" Tails said.

            "I agree with Shadow," Amy stated.  

            "How can we wake her up?" Tails asked.

            "Don't you see it?" Sonic shouted suddenly, standing up.  "We can't 'wake' her up!  Why do you think we never saw Tikal again?"  He burst away from the room and went into the other guest room, which was where he used to stay, and flung himself onto the bed.    

            Far, far away, a black eye watched something; it's eye twinkling in the darkness as a slow grin spread across its dark face.  The beast's body looked like Chaos 0, but black with slit eyes.  The creature flexed its thick, powerful hands.  

            "But I'm already back, Sonikk," it whispered in a chilly voice.  

Chapter 3

            Amy scooted into Sonic's room.  

            "Sonic?" she asked tentatively.

            "Yea?"  

            Amy sighed and sat on the edge of his bed.  "What did you mean that we can't get Rouge back?  I know we would risk Chaos coming out but Tails says it's highly unlikely.  I mean…" Amy trailed off, still staring at Sonic.  

            "Ames, while Shadow and I were straightening up the shrine, I found 10 pieces of parchment.  Lately, I've been decoding them.  I just found this one sentence that said if something that was sealed in the Master Emerald is unsealed, then – " A loud crash silenced them.  The hedgehogs looked at each other in shock for a moment, then ran into the room where Rouge was.  Purple and Black lightening-like bolts of energy sparked from around Rouge.  She was sweating, panting heavily and screaming.  Tails was against the wall in fright.  Shadow stood motionless near Sonic and Amy.  

            "No!!" Rouge screamed, her body stiffening up.  

            Shadow squinted at her forehead.  There was a little purple energy flame.  

            "COVER!" Shadow shouted, just in the nick of time.  

            The Master Emerald, which was in that room, shattered in tiny pieces, followed by an explosion of purple and black energy, sending parts of the ceiling scattering on top of them.  Black flames lit the wooden floor, but they were little, the group stayed.

            As Sonic, Amy and Tails ran to Rouge, Shadow looked at a group of black figures in the corner that had looked like shadows, but now Shadow realized they were like people.  One of the figures turned and stared at Shadow with piercing red eyes.  Shadow gasped, and then fell in pain to his knees, clutching his forehead.  

            Rouge breathed evenly and lifted herself from the debris.  

            "Rouge!" they exclaimed happily.  She groaned and let herself collapse onto the floor again.  

            "What's the matter Rouge?" Tails said.  

            "A lot more than you think…" she muttered.  

            The black creature smirked as it disappeared and floated as a water vapor around its master's throne room.  

            The throne room was traditionally black with torches on the walls as the only light.  A black wooden throne was near the end of the room; it's gnarled edges and evil decorations glistening in the light.  But there was no ruler upon the throne…but the creature's grin materialized as the shadow-figures walked in.  His plan was now about to begin.  

            Unknown to that creature, another animal lurked outside it's home.  A case clunked soundlessly off of its back.  The case was oval, strapped to the creatures shoulder.  Both the case, the arrows in the case, and the bow gripped in its hand were decorated beautifully with an ancient ring to it.  The creature knelt silently near the window still, listening and watching to everything that went on…  

            …And in another place, a particular bald man stroked his mustache, silently planning and calculating revenge…again.  Machine's whirred and beeped around him and voices traveled across the room, but ignored by the strange man.  The room gave a mighty shake and the man jerked, walking into another room quickly.  This other room was like a cockpit of a plane.  

            "What happened?" the man demanded.

            "Sir," one of the pilots said, looking at the graphs and things as his co-pilot regained control of the strange ship-like plane.  "We seem to have come across an island…it was just in floating just above the water!  We hit a strange element, but now we're through it and can see that island!"

            "Yes, yes, you idiot!  I can see!" said the man, irritated.  "Land here," he stated, and then walked out with a grin on his face.  

            "You've foiled my plans for the last 10 years Sonic," he whispered, wringing his hands in delight,            "But the return of Chaos was just one time too many."  The man threw back his head and laughed evilly.  

Chapter 4

            "_If a guardian of the Master Emerald dies and there is not another bloodline-worthy echidna to take his place, then the gods may send him back, for a price. If the guardian died to protect the Master Emerald, he will return eventually.  If it were to save himself, he will never return, he will stay forever in the fiery rings in which it belongs.  If someone other than the guardian is to be sealed in the Master Emerald, they will die.  The power and will to hold the power of the Master Emerald they would not have.  If for some reason, one attempts to release them, whatever was in the Emerald will be released with their power 10 times fold.  The blood gods will awaken with this thing.  The Blood World will start its treacherous wheel once again…with exceptions for no one.  Ones that stand before the Blood King's wrath shall be tortured and then killed.  The last time that the Blood Gods were awakened, they destroyed the entire world, but were stopped coming to the island of Tanta.  The beings there stood before with a powerful emerald and sealed them in it,_" Tails read to them.  

            "That's not good," Sonic said.

            "Wait!" Rouge said, slightly brightening, "That means we can get Knuckles back!!"

            "Yeah!" Tails exclaimed, "There are no other echidnas, so that means Knuckles will return eventually!"  

            **Or so they thought…**

The black creature was lying at the feet of the wooden chair in that same dark room.  There was about 50 black shadow/figures in the room, all staring up at the throne chair.  

            There sat an old, almost bald, man.  He wore glasses on his face and an evil, confident smirk.  He motioned with his hands and all of the shadow/figures were quiet and listened to his voice.  

            "Blood Gods," the man said to the shadow/figures, the Blood Gods, "Today is the day you'll been waiting for."  A murmur started through the blood gods, but ceased and listened to the old man.  "They destroyed your Blood King," the old man said, and several of the blood gods roared in anger, "For this they will pay!  The ones who did this, you know of them!  They are the tribe of Cosmos!"

The blood gods growled angrily again.  "For the chief's daughter and son, there will be a reward.  And the one who brings me the chief's head will be the war leader!  The hunt is on!" the man shouted.  The blood gods ran out, swinging their swords and other weapons as they went.  

            A group of six blood gods stayed in the large room.  "Now," the old man said, "You guys make sure that Robotnik fool doesn't screw up again…and if he does you know what to do."

            A small tan animal was curled up near that particular window.  She waited for a moment, and then looked through the window, determining that the old man and his creature were still there.  She brushed her quills aside from her face, stood up, and ran, her feet making no sound on the wet grass.  She was of a particular species…this species race had supposively died out because of the creature in the room.  She was an echidna.  

            In another place, where the dark night was now clouding their sky, a few more echidnas were gathered over a table, with just a small candle for light.  

            "So…" a dark blue echidna said.  "What was the urgent message for?"  He spoke to a red echidna.  

            "Where's the messenger?" retorted the red echidna.  

            "Look Austry," the blue echidna hissed, leaning over the table and glaring at Austry menacingly, "The messenger deceased in his services and the chief needs to know this."

            "Aidi, I could care less.  My orders were strict.  Give the information to the messenger and the messenger only," said Austry, watching Aidi with amusement.  

            "Tell me," Aidi hissed.  

            "Never," was Austry's reply.  Aidi lunged forward, but the third echidna grabbed him.  

            "Aidi," it warned.  Aidi shoved the third echidna away.  

            "There are so many spies in our tribe, Aidi," Austry said, "I can't trust anyone, not even you."

            "Yet," Aidi replied angrily, "You trust this…freak?"

            "My name is Ashes," the black echidna said.

            "See?"

            "Aries will hear about your insolence, Aidi," said Austry.  

            "She would understand."

            "Of course she'd understand…she's your girlfriend!" blurted Ashes.  Aidi leapt over the table and grabbed Ashes by the throat.  

            A fourth echidna, this time black with little marks of red, stepped into the light.  He raised his palm to Aidi and Ashes.  There was a small gold device in his hand that glowed red as Aidi and Ashes sunk to their knees in pain.  The echidna delivered sharp kicks to them, & then turned to Austry.  

            "Now's your time, Austry.  Your tribe, or mine?"

            Austry trembled slightly and was quiet for a moment.  Finally, he replied, "No."

            "Fine," was the other echidna's comment as he raised his palm to Austry.

            "No!" Austry pleaded, "Please no Polaris!"  

            Polaris sneered.  "Tell me the information!"  He flashed out his palm again, and Austry began to fall in pain.  

            Austry gasped for breath as he fell to his knees.  The air around him tightened and he could only get in short gasps of air.  "Chaos is unsealed and so are the Blood Gods!  So is that one bat person!"

            "What of the guardian?" Polaris asked, ignoring Austry, who was now on all fours, choking.        

            "I do not know!" cried Austry.  

            "Liar!" Polaris hissed.  

            "HE'S AWAKENED!" Austry finally cried, almost ready to collapse…forever.

            "Thank you," Polaris said, but did not remove the device until Austry had fallen to the ground, silent.  "And you've paid your price."  Polaris sneered and kicked his body to make it flip over.  Polaris grinned evilly and walked away.  

            And in the moonlight, Austry's dead eyes, wide open with fear and pain, now warned everyone the price for getting involved was just beginning.

Chapter 5

              The tan echidna ran through the forest, moving at supersonic speed, branches smacking across her face, drawing blood.  Her feet stumbled as she tumbled over a root and fell into a large clearing.  The echidna groaned with frustration.  She lifted a gloved hand and wiped the dribbles of blood that almost seeped into her eyes.  

            "I can't believe I'm lost," the echidna said to herself.  Shading her eyes from the burning sun, she reviewed her path over the last few hours.  "At least it's just the early morning," she murmured and took off down another path.  

            Sonic yawned.

            "I do not agree with Tails' decision about just…living as we were and not looking for Knuckles," Shadow said stiffly as they walked down the sidewalk in Station Square.  

            "Hey, Shadow, we have no clue where Knuckles would be and if he'd even be _alive_," replied Sonic.  They slowed and sat down on a bench.  

            "Do you think Rouge will be all right?" Shadow asked after a while.  "She is taking this…hard."

            "She'll be okay," Sonic said, jumping to his feet.  Shadow stood up.  

            "Beat you to Tails' Workshop!" Shadow shouted, and ran away, leaving Sonic in a cloud of dust.  A weak grin came to Sonic's face as he ran after Shadow.

            Tails and Rouge were talking to each other in downtown Station Square.  

            "Rouge," Tails said, "What's this about Blood Gods?"

            Rouge convulsively shivered.  She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a shrill scream.  Both Tails and Rouge ran into a small park.  

              A young hedgehog was being beat up by another _echidna_.  The hedgehog was about 14 or 15 and a light, pale yellow color.  She had her quills in the same style as Amy.  Her eyes were flaming orange.

            "Get away from me!" she shouted at the echidna, which had backed her up against a wall.  She slapped it across the face, but the echidna just punched her back.  

            "Hey!" Rouge shouted as she ran up to the echidna.  

            "Hey," replied the other echidna, grinning.  

            "Leave the girl alone," Rouge hissed.  

            "Why?" replied the echidna, then grinned again and said, "I'm Polaris, by the way."

            "Perv," Rouge whispered under her breath.   "Let her go!" she said, louder this time.

            "Make me!" retorted Polaris, and Rouge ran at him.  Polaris simply drew back his fist and punched her.  Rouge tried to dodge it, but she ended up getting punched in the neck.  She stumbled a few feet, clutching her throat.  

            "Hey you!" a familiar voice cried.  Polaris looked to a building's roof, and there was Sonic and Shadow.  They simultaneously jumped from the one-story school and into the park.  Polaris, unknown to the heroes, secretly flicked his palm to the hedgehog.  That same device was present in his hand…

            "HELP!" the yellow hedgehog screamed.  

            Tails ran forward and slapped the guy with his tails, making the echidna turn to him.  When he did, Sonic and Shadow began to attack him from behind.  Rouge and Tails helped the girl up and took her to a nearby tree, in a safe distance from the battle.  Polaris sneered, and disappeared quickly from the spot seeing he was way outnumbered, just as Amy came to the scene. 

            "Oh my gosh!" the yellow hedgehog said, then ran forward and hugged Sonic, "Thank you sooooooooooooo much for rescuing me!!!"

            "Well…uh…" Sonic stuttered, seeing the jealous glances from his friends.  "Who are you?" he asked as the hedgehog let go.

            "My name's Dawn," the hedgehog replied, grinning.  "And you must be Sonic!" Amy gagged at the girl's name.  

            "Well…uh…Dawn…we have to," Sonic started.

            "Get going," Rouge continued for him.  "We gotta find that loser.  Catch ya later!" 

            "Wait!" Dawn called after them.  "Let me come!"  

            "It's too dangerous," Amy said coldly.  

            "Amy's right…" Sonic muttered.

            "Please?" Dawn said, looking at them with puppy-dog eyes.  Sonic looked at the others, mouthing 'what do you want me to say?'.  

            "Sure," Sonic said with a sigh.  Amy gave Dawn the death glare and placed herself right beside Sonic.  Dawn slid up to the other side of Sonic.  

Chapter 6

            Sonic shifted uncomfortably between Amy and Dawn during the train ride to the Mystic Ruins.  

            "I don't see why we should've taken the train," Rouge said.  

            Sonic sighed and stared pointedly at Amy and Dawn.  Rouge just rolled her eyes.  

            "So," Dawn said, "Where are we going?"  

            "We're going to the jungle," Amy replied.  

            "What?" Dawn replied.  

            "Yep," Amy said, "Full of snakes and alligators."

            "Amy," Sonic said, sighing, "There is nothing dangerous in that jungle, okay?"

            "Why are we going to the jungle anyway?" Dawn asked in a sugar-sweet voice.  

            "That's where he was headed," Amy said in the "you're so dumb" tone of voice.

            "I know," Dawn said to Amy in a snooty voice, then went back to her "sweet" voice as she spoke to Sonic, "But couldn't he have been trying to lead us into a trap?"

            "He could've," Sonic said shrugging.

            Suddenly the train lurched forward.

            "That sounds like a trap to me Sonikku!" Dawn said in a panicked voice.  The train was leaning now to the right.  Tails slowly crept to the left, shoved open a window and looked out.  The middle two cars were in flames, and hanging off of the right side of the track, and dragging more cars down with them.  

            "Not good," Tails said, and told them what he saw.  

            Rouge walked to the end of the car.  "Follow me Amy," she whispered, then added, "Dawn…" She slowly creaked open the door and stepped onto the balcony thing at the end.  Then Rouge steeped onto the connector thing, making the c'mon signal with her hands to Amy and Dawn.  Dawn almost fell onto the tracks below them a few times because of her high heels. Rouge glided to the side of the train track, where there were no rails.  Amy and Dawn followed.  

            "You guys okay?" Sonic said, popping his head out the window.  

            "Yea!" Rouge replied over the gust that had started to pick up.  The train lurched again as another car fell.  Tails looked worriedly at Sonic.  

            "Good thing it was just us on this one," Sonic muttered.  

            "What about the conductor?" Shadow asked, then the train lurched as the front engine car fell.  

            "Does that answer your question?" Sonic replied as the cars began falling off of the tracks in a follow-through.  From the back of the train, the back cars pushed up to the car that Sonic and the others were in, smashing against the door that Rouge, Amy and Dawn had exited.  Tails ran forward and attacked the door, but it wouldn't budge.  His eyes widened in fear as the car that was about 2 away from them fell away.  

            "Let's get out of here!" Shadow yelled, flinging himself through the window, shards of glass flying through the air.  The car in front of them fell and Tails and Sonic jumped.  As they groaned and stood up on the side, the train crashed onto the water below. 

            "I told you we should've walked," Rouge said dryly after a couple minutes of silence.  

            The tan echidna cursed under her breath as she tripped over something lying in the middle of her path.  As she shook out her ankle, she looked at what she had tripped over.  To her surprise, it was a red echidna. The echidna bent over the red one, and checked its pulse.  It was slow, but there all the same.  All of a sudden the echidna stirred.

            "AHHH!" he shouted and jumped back, waking up to an echidna in his face.  The other echidna also jumped back.  "Who are you?" he demanded.  The tan echidna watched him with blue eyes then sighed.

            "Aries," she told him, extending her hand.  

            "Knuckles," he replied somewhat stiffly and shook her hand.  

            "Not to be rude or anything…but are you from around here?" Aries asked.

            "Where is here?" Knuckles asked, groaning as he sat up, leaning against a tree trunk.  

            "You don't know?  Where are you from, anyway, Knuckles?"    

            "I'm from Angel Island," Knuckles said, and then sighed as confusion showed on Aries' face, "Station Square?  Mystic Ruins?  Ring a bell?"

            "No…" Aries said thoughtfully.  

            Knuckles sighed.  "Where are we?"

            "Cosmic Island, home of the tribe of the Cosmos!" Aries exclaimed happily.

            "Where in the _cosmos_ is that?" retorted Knuckles sarcastically.

            "Do you want to come with me to the village?"

            "Village…yeah…great."

            "Except I don't exactly know the way," Aries said, cringing.  

            "Well, let's try it again," Knuckles muttered, lifting himself off of the ground and walking down a path.  Aries jumped up and walked beside him.

Chapter 7

            Dawn pushed past Amy and ran to Sonic, holding his elbow as he slowly stood up.  

            "Are you alright Sonikku?" she asked.

            "I've been though worse," Sonic retorted.  

            "C'mon," Shadow said, walking down where the front of the train had been.  

            "Where are you going?" Dawn asked.

            "To the front of the train, dufus," Amy said, and followed Shadow.  Sonic stood up and he and Tails followed the rest.  Dawn stood there for a moment, and then ran after Sonic.

            "You could all be walking into a trap!" she shouted helplessly.  

            "So what was it like on that island?" Aries asked Knuckles, "I mean, with no one to talk to and all."

            "Well," Knuckles sighed, "It was pretty good.  My friends…" Knuckles stopped to clear a lump forming in his throat.  "…They stopped by almost daily and talked to me."

            "Oh," Aries said.  "Who were your friends?"

            "I don't suppose you've heard of Sonic the hedgehog have you?" Knuckles asked Aries.

            "Nope, never heard of him."

            "Surprise, surprise," Knuckles muttered.  

            "HEY YOU!" a voice cried out.  Aries whirled around, easily and quickly flipping an arrow, fitting it into her bow, and aiming where the voice came from in 1 second.  

            "Loretta!" Aries exclaimed, lowering her bow as a tan echidna came into view.  Aries looked her up and down.  "New style or hunting for something?" she asked Loretta, commenting on her army hip-hugger pants, high-heeled combat boots, and V-necked white tee.  

            "Actually, I was hunting for you," Loretta muttered.  

            "Well, anyway," Aries said and then motioned to Knuckles.  "This is Knuckles, Knuckles that's Loretta."

            "Hi," Loretta said.

            "Hey."

            "You two follow me back to camp," Loretta told them, "We are still a couple miles from the tribe."

            While Loretta was making dinner, Knuckles questioned both Loretta and Aries.  

            "I wasn't aware that there were any more echidnas," Knuckles said slowly.

            "Goodness no!" Loretta said as she set a salad bowl on the table.  "There are tons of echidnas on this island.  Why would you think we don't exist?"

            "Well…" Knuckles said, "My tribe, all except for me was wiped out by Chaos."  Seeing the blank look on Aries' face, he explained about Chaos.

            "You say you had a run in with Chaos before?" Aries asked.

            "Yeah, twice."

            "Do tell," said Loretta.  And so Knuckles told them of their first and second encounter of Chaos.  

            "Wow," Aries whispered after he told them. By now, they were starting on their meal.  

            "About 3 other people should be coming," Loretta told Knuckles, "That's why there is so much." 

            "Oh."

            "Wait a second…"

            "What?"

            "Chaos…chaos…" Loretta repeated the name, as if it would renew an old memory.  "I think I remember something about that…  Oh wait!  Did you have your second encounter with Chaos about 1 to 2 months ago?"

            "Yes," Knuckles said.  

            "I do remember something of it then, something about Station Square…"

            "What?" 

            "Tell him," Aries said quietly.  

            "Well, I found this newspaper.  It washed up on shore," Loretta began.  "I picked it up.  It was the Station Square Times, or something or another.  I thought it looked rather interesting, so I read it.   It said exactly what you told us."

            "What happened to my friends?"

            "They are all fine," Loretta said, "Expect one.  The paper had an interview with Robotnik or whoever that pot-bellied man on the front was, and he said they had sealed Chaos inside the Master Emerald, along with themselves.

            "Who?" Knuckles said, dreading the answer, no matter who it would be.

            "Rouge the bat."

Chapter 8

            Sonic sighed as he followed Shadow to the front of where the train was.  

            "Are we just gonna walk there?" Dawn shouted over the wind that had picked up and was blowing her red dress hard against her knees.

            "Yeah," Amy replied, brushing past her.

            Dawn shoved Amy and ran up to Sonic, slipping her arm through his.  Amy growled as she heaved herself off of the ground.  

            Shadow flung out a hand to stop Sonic.  

            "I hear something," he whispered.  Sonic listened intently, and he heard the noise too.  It was a quiet whirring noise, but getting louder.  

            "I swear I've heard that…" Sonic muttered.  

            Just as he recognized where he heard that sound, Sonic whirled around to have his head collide with a solid metal thing.  The metal thing was a hand…attached to a metallic blue body.  

            "Metal Sonic?" Amy exclaimed.  

            "Who is that?" Dawn asked.

            "I thought you killed him!" Rouge exclaimed. 

            "What?" Tails said.  

            Sonic groaned and clutched his forehead as the world spun before him.  He struggled to get up, but Shadow laid his palm on Sonic's back.

            "Stay here.  I'll take care of him." 

            All Sonic could do was groan in reply.  

            Metal Sonic balled his hands into fists as five three-inch blades slid out where his palms were supposed to be.  Shadow turned to Dawn, Amy, Rouge, and Tails.  

            "You guys take care of Sonic, Tails and I will take care of Metal," he told them.  Rouge threw him a withering glare.  "What?  You think I can trust those bimbos with Sonic?"

            "You seemed to trust Amy pretty well at ARK," Rouge retorted snidely.  Shadow shook his head and turned to Metal Sonic again.  Metal Sonic leapt forward, hovering in the air.  Shadow somersaulted behind him and Tails jumped in the air to face Metal.  When Metal went to slice Tails, Shadow jumped up and prepared to attack Metal while airborne.

            Metal Sonic noticed, and swirled around with his blades, slicing Shadow in the shoulder and just missing Tails.  As Shadow fell, Metal whirled around and grabbed Tails by the throat and lifted him in the air.  Tails slammed his feet into Metal's robotic shell, but the robot took no notice.  Finally, as Tails started to turn red and blue, Metal grabbed him with the other hand and flung him off of the bridge/train thing.  

            "NO!" Rouge shouted, and leapt off of the bridge/train thingy, opened her wings and glided Tails back up.  

            While she was doing this however, Metal landed in front of Dawn and Amy.  

            "You leave Sonikku alone!" Amy said, trying to sound brave, but a tremor creeping into her voice.  Metal shoved her away and she slid, but just grabbed the edge as she hung.  "HELP ME!" she shrieked.  

            "Leave Sonic alone," Dawn said to Metal as Sonic began to stir.  

            "Leave," Metal Sonic replied, its eyes flashing white.  

            "No."  Metal Sonic grabbed her by the throat.  As he prepared to throw her, a dark red starburst symbol appeared on her forehead.  Metal grinned: not easy for a robot.  Metal flipped Dawn over her shoulder and ran away as Sonic stood up and started to chase after him, but stopped as Metal scaled one of the hills that the track went through. 

            "SONIE!" Amy screamed from the edge.  Sonic sighed, and then went over to Amy and lifted her back up.  

            "Where are Shadow and the rest?"

            "Over there," Amy said, pointing at Shadow, "And Rouge is…"

            "…Right here." Rouge finished, Tails behind her.  

            "Shadow, are you okay?" Sonic asked as they ran over to Shadow.

            Shadow groaned and pulled his hand from his wound.  Instead of blood, the wound was filled with a sticky blue substance.  Sonic, Tails, and Rouge gasped; Amy and Dawn cringed.  

            "What the heck is that?" Shadow asked.  

            Knuckles sat at the table, thoughts rushing through his head.  Aries bit her lip and stared at Knuckles, concerned.            

            "You really liked her, didn't you?" Loretta said, sitting at the table.  Knuckles was caught off-guard by the question.

            "Yeah," he said eventually, "I did…"  

            "Loretta," Aries said, leaving Knuckles to his own thoughts and troubles, "Shouldn't we be getting home?" 

            "There's a small problem," Loretta replied.  "There were five spies that came through the village.  We've found four."

            "Where are they?" 

            "Dead.  They said they'd rather die than betray their leader."

            "Great…so the others are just on a wild goose chase for the fifth?"

            "No.  It killed Austry," Loretta replied sadly.

            "Oh my gosh," Aries whispered in shock, "I'm so sorry Loretta."  

            "I can't believe it…my own brother," Loretta trembled, but kept her posture.  "Aidi…he was with Ashes and Austry."

            "Is he okay?"

            "Yeah, the spy just knocked him out."  Loretta stood up shakily from the table.  "I'm going to go…in the tent," she said, and ran there, sobbing.  

            "Poor thing," Aries murmured.  She set her navy blue eyes on Knuckles.  "It's against the laws of my people to tell you what I'm going to tell you now, Knuckles."

            Knuckles stared back at her in a zombie-like trance.  "I can't tell anyone else, blahdi blah blah." 

            "Yeah.  Well…whatever you may think…Chaos is still alive."

            Loretta stood near the opening of the tent, studying Knuckles with her black eyes.  She sighed and then added, "Havoc is the one who destroyed the echidnas...and he is unsealed also."

            "Who's Havoc?  And what do you mean Chaos is alive?"

            "Havoc is Chaos' father and the son of Hades," Loretta said, "Hades is real and is the god of underworld and was sealed in another Master Emerald, pacifically the Sangre Master Emerald.  

            "Sangre?"

            "Translated is roughly the "Blood Master Emerald."  There are hundreds of Master Emeralds around this galaxy.  Yours is the Chaos Master Emerald."

Chapter 9

            Shadow, Sonic, Rouge, Tails, Dawn and Amy were at Tails' Workshop.  Sonic sighed and rested his head on the wooden table in Tails' kitchen.  Dawn and Amy where seated beside him.  Rouge was across from Sonic.  Tails walked into the kitchen, followed by Shadow.  

            "What is it?" Sonic said, noticing the blue stuff on Tails' gloves.  Shadow frowned and started picking at the bandages around his stomach.  Tails smacked his hand.  Shadow passed him an evil look.  

            "I don't know," Tails said finally.   

            "Well," Rouge said and sighed.  "Who could Metal be working for?"

            "Eggman," Sonic said immediately. 

            "Irrelevant," Tails countered.  "Metal wouldn't go back to Eggman, he'd be torn to shards for what he did."

            "What about Gerald?" Shadow said, pulling up a chair.  

            "Can't be.  He's locked up," Tails said.  "Total 24-7 security.  Nothing goes in there."

            "So who, smarty?"  

            "I have no clue." 

            Rouge sighed heavily.  "So we just sit here and – " she stopped as Shadow fell onto the table, his eyes glassing over.  "Shadow?  SHADOW?"  She grabbed his shoulders and shook him.  "Tails!  What the heck is happening here?"  Tails ran over, and a minute later he moaned. 

            "What's wrong?" Sonic said.

            "He's not responding."

            "And that means what?" Dawn asked.  

            "He's in a coma."

            Knuckles lapsed into silence, thinking of what Aries had just said.  His ears pricked at a noise of crunching leaves.  Aries tensed.  The two listened in silence.

            "Not good," Aries muttered as more footsteps joined the others.  "Go and run ahead.  Northbound.  I'll get Loretta."  Knuckles nodded, knowing that arguing would just waste valuable time.  As he ran north, he heard a chilling scream.  Without pausing to think, he turned on his word and ran back to the camp.  

            "Metal Sonic!" Knuckles shouted compulsively as he saw the metallic robot face to face with Aries.  Loretta was laying on the ground, curled into a ball, a blue sticky substance leaking from her shoulder as her eyes glassed over.

            A young hedgehog smiled as she brushed her quills, rocking to the music gliding from her boom box.  She inspected her brown quills w/blond highlights in the mirror.  

            "Mirror, Mirror hanging on the wall," she sang, "You don't have to tell me who's the biggest fool of all."  

            "Yeah, it's you!" shouted a voice from the other side of the room.  The hedgehog turned around with a wry look on her face.  

            "Leave me alone Sofia!" replied the hedgehog.  

            The other hedgehog was black in color and had her quills died red at the tips and pulled back sharply by a ponytail, unlike the other, who had it clipped.  

            "Whatever," replied Sofia.  "You're going on another date?"

            "Yes."

            "Gosh, Kenya," Sofia said, sighing.  "You have no time to live your life."

            "Oh yeah?" Kenya turned around.  She placed a manicured hand on her short, metallic black skirt.  "And that would be like what?  Becoming a gang member?" 

            "Never mind," Sofia muttered.  

            "Don't use any of my clothes for that rave you're going to tonight," Kenya added.  

            Sofia laughed in amusement and motioned to her outfit.  She was wearing tight black leather pants, combat boots, and a tee.  Sofia then looked at Kenya's black platforms, tight leather skirt, and silver glitter spaghetti tank top.  

            "I think you don't have to worry about that," Sofia muttered.  Kenya just sighed in aggravation.  She strode to the door.  

            "Hey," Sofia said gently.  

            "What?" Kenya turned around.  

            "Be careful.  His spies are everywhere," Sofia said.  Kenya jerked suddenly, reacting as if Sofia had just slapped her with memories.  

            "We eluded him," Kenya said, but more to convince herself.  Sofia just sighed.  "Bye," Kenya muttered, and walked out.  

Chapter 10

            Kenya stood on a stage, staring over the sea of people.  She turned to the 2 hedgehogs behind her.  They grinned and gave her the thumbs-up signs.  Kenya shook her head disdainfully and turned back to the people.  Suddenly gentle music coursed through the speakers.  She took a deep breath.  Her background singers were singing a few lines, hardly heard over the music.  

            "Why don't I like the girl I see/the one whose standing right in front of me/why don't I think before I speak/Why should I listen to that voice inside me/I must be stupid, must be stupid, must be out of my mind/to say the things I said last night," Kenya sang into the microphone, smiling at the people cheering for her.  She kept the smile plastered to her face and swayed to the music as the background singers sung and the music beat through the speakers.  She scanned the crowd.  Oh crap, Kenya thought as she spotted a black hedgehog in an old dirty suit also scanning the crowd.  He looked up and caught her gaze.  Lifting a hand, the hedgehog flipped a side of the suit open.  A gun was nestled in a holder.  Kenya was remarkably calm.  Fear and terror didn't seize her.  Without missing a beat, she returned on her cue to singing, but watching the man through the whole thing.  

            Once the song was over, she immediately left the building.  No use to hurt other people while this thug followed her around.  Kenya smirked, thinking of thousands of ways that she would leave this guy begging for mercy.  Wryly, Kenya imagined where she'd be and what she would be doing if she weren't what she was…fearless.  

            "Stop it right there missy," the hedgehog commanded.  Kenya turned around, cringing at the stench of beer in his breath.  In a sure hand he held out the gun.  

            "What do you want?" Kenya said in what she tried to make a scared voice, but it came up high and squeaky.  Oh well, Kenya thought.  

            "Give me your money," the thug said.  With the thug being drunk, it sounded more along the lines of 'gimme u mony'.

            "Put down the gun, or you'll be sorry," Kenya said evenly.  The thug snorted in amusement and then reached out and grabbed her.  She was glad he touched her first, because now if she kicked his butt, it could all be in self-defense.  

            Figures he'd grab me, Kenya thought as she smirked, the stupidest move in the book.  Kenya backhanded him across the face.  The thug stumbled back and cursed at her.  Kenya slammed her platform square into his gut and he moaned in pain.  She then thrust the base of her hand into his face.  Kenya felt something; she couldn't place it, as the man stumbled back, blood spewing from his overly large nose.  Narrowing her eyes, she hit him in the solar plexus, and then swept his legs from under him.  Quickly, she grabbed his gun from the ground and shoved it in the man's temple.  

            "Who sent you?" she hissed.  The man whined, lifting his hand, but Kenya kicked it aside and pressed the gun harder.  She really wouldn't kill the man, but he didn't know that.  

            "No one," the thug said through a mouth full of blood.  Kenya sighed, backhanded him again, sending him unconscious.  She took the bullets out of the gun and tossed it on the man, and then snatched up his wallet and fanned through it.  

            "Yes," she whispered, pulling out a small chip and dropping the wallet.  

            "Agent Zulu Alpha Beta!" the voice said.  Kenya imitated the man's voice as best as she could.

            "Subject has been neutralized.  Where shall I proceed?"

            "Negative, Agent Zulu Alpha Beta, stay there.  A few others are coming."  Kenya frowned.  Definitely best to get out of there now, she thought.  Then, as a thought, grabbed the guy's wallet, leaving the chip in the alley.  

            As she left, Kenya pulled out a small paper from it.  

            AGENT ZULU ALPHA BETA:

            Capture subject.  Bring back to HQ.  DO NOT neutralize subject.  If so, you will be terminated.  Do not reveal information about CLOFAZE under all costs.

            Kenya flipped it over.  

            ROBO INDUSTRIES            

            "ROBO Industries?  CLOFAZE?" she murmured.  "What the heck?"  She muttered the words a few more times as she walked mindlessly along the sidewalk.  "Someone had a name that started with that…ARG!  If I could just remember who it was!"  After a block or two, she was aware of someone following her.  She whirled around and came face-to-face with a metal robot.  Kenya studied it…and the blades protruding from its hands.              

            "Not good," she muttered as she dodged oncoming blows from the robot.  Adrenaline surged through her.  She dodged another expert blow and took off, her speed breaking the sound barrier as she ran.  

            1 block…2 blocks…3 blocks…  Kenya couldn't remember how many blocks she'd ran, but blackness was now nipping at the edge of her vision and her adrenaline was now sizzling.  She stumbled as everything turned an ugly brown and the ground came up to meet her.  Kenya was surrounded by darkness.  

Chapter 11

            Amy stood abruptly from the silent table.  

            "I'm going for a walk," she muttered.  Shadow was lying on the couch, and Tails was trying his hardest to help him but it wasn't working. 

            Sighing, Amy slowly walked through the endless green of Mystic Ruins.  Oddly, the beautiful scenery made her want to wipe it off…make it look like it should.  Dreary and rainy.  Why are you so happy? Amy silently demanded of the tinkling sun, the mountain rising up so high in the sky, the flowers swaying in the gentle breeze.  She swung her hand out, and it connected with something.  

            "Ow!" Amy shouted, as a tinge of stinging pain produced itself on Amy's hand.  Furiously, she slapped the hand, hoping it would somewhat help the pain stop.  "What the heck?" Amy cried as a wasp materialized, falling crushed from her hand, onto the ground.  

            Amy, curious, bent down and looked at the little wasp.  She sort of winced when she saw part of it bleeding, curiosity of Amy.  Amy looked closer and gasped; blue blood was leaking from it.  The wasp opened a black eye, and Amy quickly smashed it with her boot.

            So much for the outdoors calming me, Amy thought as she scurried, unnerved, back to the workshop. 

            Kenya sighed as she walked into her and Sofia's bedroom.  

            "What happened to you?" Sofia said, turning around in the rolling chair in front of their computer.  

            "Fight," Kenya muttered.  Sofia nodded, as if it was something normal.  "And…there was this robot thingy that followed me…real weird."

            "Trust me, Kenya, once you hear what I found out while you were rockin', you will probably make more sense of _that_."

            "Bring it," Kenya said, yawning and bringing up a chair next to Sofia.  

            "I found this at that rave off of some thug," she said, and pointed to the floppy inserted in the computer.  "Look at what was on it."  

            Kenya sighed and watched the machine whir.  Suddenly the word CLOFAZE appeared at the top of the black screen.  Hundreds of symbols appeared under it, and the computer slowly translated them.  

            "What?" Kenya said, in a whisper-shout.  Every aspect of her life appeared, her height, her age, her friends, her parents, stepparents, and everything else.  A picture of her appeared, and then duplicated itself over and over again.  "Someone wants to clone me?" Kenya asked unbelievingly.  

            "I guess so," Sofia muttered.  "Do you know them?" she joked.  

            "ROBO Industries," Kenya murmured, her forehead creased in thought.  "Could it be?"

            "And stay tuned after this break to find out what the heck Kenya is saying," Sofia said dryly.  

            "The thug I beat up today," Kenya said, "I'm pretty sure he worked for ROBO Industries, or that's what the card in his wallet said.  He was supposed to bring the 'subject' to 'headquarters'."

            "I say you get some rest, I'll have coffee and hack up what info I can about 'ROBO Industries'."  

            "No," Kenya said.  "I want to help."

            "Hey," Sofia said, smiling, "You remember that little deal we had?  I have the brains, you don't have them.  I have the fear, you don't.  And you can fight real good, I can't.  I have an IQ that probably doubles yours.  Therefore, I look up the enemy, and you beat their butts to Britain."

            Kenya sighed in aggravation.  "I hate you," she muttered, and then walked over to her bed and went to sleep.  

            Kenya rolled over and looked at the white wall.  She cursed silently as her finger tinged with a bit of pain.  She saw a little slice, probably from that robot, she thought.  As she slept, a blue sticky substance mixed in her blood.

Chapter 12      

            "Aries!  Get out of here!" Knuckles shouted, shoving her away from Metal Sonic.  Aries jumped to her feet.

            "No!"

            Knuckles turned and glared at her.  "Just go already!"

            "Go ahead and stay," a robotic voice said.  

            "You can talk?" Aries said.  Knuckles frowned.  Metal bared his razor sharp teeth and swiped at Knuckles with the knives on his hand.  Knuckles ducked swiftly and slammed his shoulder into Metal's gut, sending Metal flying backwards.  A rush of static came from Metal Sonic for a second, then stopped abruptly.  He stood up and his eyes locked on Knuckles as sparks flew from his metal armor.  

            "C'mon!" Aries finally said, and grabbed Knuckles' arm and starting pulling him away.  Knuckles finally jogged with her.

            "Why isn't he following us?" Aries asked, glancing back.  She had just voiced Knuckles' worries.  Suddenly, Aries turned and ran diagonally back to where Metal probably was.  

            "Where are you going?" Knuckles hissed quietly.

            "You really think I'd leave Loretta like that?" Aries replied, running a tad left of where they had just left.  She quickly scaled a tree and looked into the clearing.  Knuckles followed her slowly.  

            Metal Sonic was still standing in the middle of the clearing and looking as if he was waiting for something.  Loretta was trembling violently on the ground.  Aries felt a rush of anger at the robot and grabbed her bow and, quick as a flash, fitted one arrow in it.  

            "Wait," Knuckles whispered to her, reaching out and pulling her bow down.  Metal Sonic slowly turned and left.  Aries sighed with relief and jumped down into the clearing.

            "He could still be there!" Knuckles shouted worthlessly.  Aries ignored him and ran over to Loretta.  Knuckles sighed and followed her.  

            "Loretta?" Aries said, rolling Loretta's trembling body into her arms.  

            "Uh…" Loretta responded with a groan.  

            "Loretta!" Aries cried with relief and Loretta sat up.  Loretta studied Aries up and down.  

            "Get away from me!" Loretta suddenly hissed in a voice, unlike her own, as she jumped up.  Aries notice briefly that her eyes flashed an ice cold blue, and then came back to her original color.  

            "Are you nuts?" Knuckles hissed.  Loretta turned to him. 

            "Guardian," she said in that same cold voice.

            "Yeah?" Knuckles replied.  Loretta snorted.  

            "Pathetic creature," she murmured, and turned her back on them.

            Aries walked up to Loretta cautiously.  Loretta whirled, grabbed her by the shoulders and flung her easily over her head and through the table.  Knuckles ran forward and attacked her with a fury of punches, which she easily blocked.

            "GUARDIAN!" Loretta shouted, laughing.  "You are no match for me!"  Knuckles rammed his fist again.  

            "You cannot defeat me!  I am of your blood!"  Knuckles just kept his attack coming.  

            "I can return Loretta to you," Loretta, or whatever was talking, said.  

            "STOP!" Aries shouted to Knuckles, and she limped to him.  

            "Who are you?" Knuckles said.

            "I am Tikal's sister, Lakit.  Twins, actually."

            "Are you some kind of spirit?" Aries asked, still glaring at Loretta/Lakit.  

            "Yes, I am in fact."

            "Well give us back Loretta!" Aries demanded.

            "Shush," murmured Loretta/Lakit.  

            "How many bodies are you inhabiting?" Knuckles asked.

            "Oh, just this one.  My kin are in the others."

            "Others?" questioned Aries.

            "Hundreds," replied Lakit, grinning widely.  She examined her body.  "But I think that my first daughter will enjoy this body more than I."

            "What are you talking about?" Aries lost her level-head ness and fury took over.  "Dang it, give me my friend back!" 

            "No thanks," Lakit said.  

            "I'll kill you!" Aries screamed, flipping her bow out and fitting another arrow in.  The bow was inches for Lakit's, or rather, Loretta's, face.

            "You wouldn't kill me," Lakit stated, "Number 1, I can inhabit another body just as simply.  Number 2, you'd kill your little friend.  Loretta, or whatever her name is."

            "Sorry, Loretta," Knuckles said, and punched Lakit straight in the face.  Lakit/Loretta stumbled back, and then smiled, wiping the blood off of her face.  

            "All right then," Lakit said.  "I'll leave this body.  My daughter will have war with the host and whoever wins, takes over the mind."  She laughed shrilly.  "For now I will not inhabit a different body for about three days.  And then," a grin speed across her face, "I will find my true host.  Almost perfect…  So much courage and bravery and no fear."  She laughed again.  "Well…Nice meeting you all."

            "HEY!" Aries shouted as Loretta's eyes flashed ice cold blue again and then her body collapsed on the ground.  

Chapter 13

            Sonic frowned as Amy came back in.  He immediately saw her face was etched with fear.

            "What happened?" he asked.

            "Nothing," replied Amy in a tight voice.  Sonic sighed.  If Amy didn't think it was important enough to tell him, then fine.  Sonic closed his eyes and frowned.  

            "Guys," he said, finally.  

            "Yeah?" everyone, except Shadow, of course, looked at him.  

            "I think we should go and see who Metal Sonic is working for.  We really need to know."

            Rouge stood up and guilt tore through her as she told them what she thought, "Because I got out of the emerald, Chaos and the Blood Gods are out.  And…there was something else in there."

            "What was it?" Sonic asked.

            "I…I don't know," Rouge frowned as fear tickled her spine as she remembered.  "I could sense something in the shadows.  Evil, pure evil.  Chaos would never go near it.  I think he was afraid."

             Everyone was quiet as they thought.

            "Isn't obvious?" Rouge said quietly.  "It's the Blood Gods or Chaos or whatever that…thing was."

            "It could be Robotnik," Sonic said quietly.  

            "This is a big mess," Tails said out loud.

            "We've never screwed up this bad," stated Amy.  

            "Letting them out…" Rouge continued.  

            "It wasn't our fault," said Dawn.  "They would've come up anyway.  And besides, what can THEY do to us?  We can protect ourselves."

            Rouge whirled around and fixed Dawn with an angry stare.  "And what can YOU do?  Scratch, bite, claw, hiss?" 

            "You mean we're supposed to stand here and let them do this?" Amy said.  

            "Well…" Dawn stuttered.

            "Well what?" Sonic said harshly.  Dawn sighed.   

            Suddenly, pounding echoed through the house.  Tails frowned and walked to the door, followed by everyone else.  Tails swung the door open.

            A black hedgehog stood at the door, carrying a brown hedgehog, which was in the same state as Shadow.  

            "Help," the black hedgehog panted, taking sharp, pained gasps for breath.  "We need your help."  She took two steps forward, and then collapsed. 

            Knuckles stood in the small clearing and stared at Loretta's limp body.  Aries was kneeling next to her.  Suddenly, he heard a small noise, like a twig being stepped on.  

            "C'mon.  We have to get out of here," he said, and grabbed Loretta's body and started walking off.

            "But what about the others?" Aries said as she stood up.

            "They're probably gone by now."

            "You're right…"

            Knuckles tensed as the noise repeated several times.  "Let's get out of here," he said urgently, breaking into a run that would rival Sonic's.

            Aries looked around nervously, and then slipped a silver and gold bracelet on her wrist.  She ran, and caught up with Knuckles.

            On the bracelet, the gold slowly glowed teal and the silver glowed a light pink.  

            Back in Tails' Workshop, the black hedgehog had awoken and was talking with Tails.

            "I have no clue what this whole coma thing is from," Sofia murmured, staring at her cup of coffee.         

            "You say that she said she ran into a blue robot?"

            "Yeah.  Blades on its knuckles," she added.  

            "Metal Sonic," he whispered.

            "Hm?"

            "Metal Sonic is a robotic copy of Sonic that Robotnik created."

            "Robotnik?"

            "The guy I told you about a while ago…"

            "Oh!  You mean Eggman?"

            "Yeah," Tails replied with a forced grin.  "His real name is Dr. Robotnik, but we call him Eggman."

            "Why?"

            "He's obsessed with eggs."

            "Oh…" Sofia smirked and sipped some coffee, "Well that makes sense."  She sighed and stared at Tails seriously.  

            "What?"

            "I might know where we might be able to find some information.  I'm not quite sure if this place is even what I think it is, or if it has the answers to our questions, but…"

            "Shoot."

            "Well," Sofia began, "When Kenya and I traveled a lot, I ran scans on the islands.  Most of them were deserted.  I ran a scan on one of them, and there was life thriving.  I talked to Kenya, but she refused to come.  She told me this…legend of some sort…that this island was where a creature was created.  The island's race was echidna, and they were extremely advanced.  They were experimenting with power and things like that, and there was an accident, where this creature was created.  It could use any type of power, but it favored fire over all.  Where the thing walked, there were smoldering flames left behind.  He was pure evil.  Tails," she fixed him with a really serious stare, "On this island, Hades was created."


End file.
